Kathy Bates on Aging, Style, and "Not Suffering Fools"

Kathy Bates knows the best part of getting older isn't that obvious.

She tells a quick story.

"I worked with Marcello Mastrioianni many, many years ago," she says. "He said, 'As a young man, you want to pile on the masks. You want to put on those masks and play a lot of different characters."

"Then he said, 'As you get older, you want to remove those masks and just play yourself – or close to yourself.'

"I've found that to be true," says the 63-year-old Oscar winner during a phone interview.

"When you're young you're just running around trying to find the real you, but when you're older you know that face that looks back in the mirror. You feel comfortable with her. You're happy to see her in the morning."

A TRUE CHARACTER

Kathy stars in the new Woody Allen film "Midnight in Paris" and on the NBC series "Harry's Law" which was renewed for a second season. She plays Harry – Harriet Korn/Harry Korn —  a disillusioned lawyer who is starting over with other eccentric lawyers who start an unconventional firm.

On the show and in real life, she has an easygoing style with a short bob that often has blonde highlights and soft bangs and mild layers. She plays up her eyes with black liner and a few coats of mascara to make them pop. She's known for experimenting with a bold infusion of color in her dress. 

"I don't like a lot of fuss and muss," she says. "Give me an easy style where I don't have to spend hours in the bathroom. I want to look good and be able to go and live my life."

Bates, best known for playing wacky Annie Wilkes in "Misery" and Evelyn Couch in "Fried Green Tomatoes" brings her true personality to the series.

"In my private life, I'm probably just as curmudgeonly as Harry. And I share her disillusionment at times with this crazy business I've had a career in for so many years," she says.

"I'm upfront honest with people, too," she says. "I don't suffer fools gladly, which is another perk of growing older."

She says her show tackles the economic issues of aging in America. "With this series, Harry is at a very timely juncture in her life. She lost her job and has to start over and she's not 22," Kathy says.

"I think in today's economy there are a lot of people out there Harry's age who can relate. If they have got the time between the two jobs they're working at now to sit down and watch a TV show then this would be the one for them," she says with a laugh.

"The point is you're never too old to have a brand new, major life adventure," she promises.

A QUICK LOOK BACK

Kathy jokes that she was a born performer.

There was a joke that when she was born, the doctor slapped her rear end and Kathy "thought it was applause."

A native of Memphis, Tennessee, she grew up as the youngest of three daughters to a mechanical engineer and a homemaker. She began to act in high school and then studied drama at Southern Methodist University. She moved to New York City in 1970 to audition for stage roles.

While trying to break into acting, Kathy did whatever it took to pay her rent. "Those weren't glam years of buying great outfits and running around the city," she says. "I was the payroll clerk upstairs who counted all the money that they brought in from the cashier from downstairs.

"I had to take all the coins because it used to be coins back in those days. I had to wrap them and send them off to the bank."

She worked on and off Broadway before hitting the big screen.

A GREAT LIFE LESSON

Kathy says the late, great Jessica Tandy, her costar in the film "Fried Green Tomatoes" set her straight on aging.

 "The one thing I remember the most about her was how her work was a source of life," Kathy recalls.

"When we started working on 'Fried Green Tomatoes,' she came to work in jeans and a little jean jacket on," Bates says. "She looked like a 16-year-old girl out of drama school with her first role. And she was 84 at the time." 

Tandy's lessons are a daily reminder for Kathy Bates.

"She taught me that if you stay in love with what you do and if you do it the right way then it will support you and love you right back," she says.  

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